How sweet it is - the smell of the Venetian night. How it is done in Venice Sewerage in Venice how it works
Perhaps, all over the world, Venice is second only to one city in terms of romance - Paris. Gondoliers, canals instead of streets, fresh sea breeze from the Adriatic - what could be better? But often practical people come up with the question: "How is the sewerage system in Venice?" Add to the confusion and rumors that the city is constantly saturated with the smell of urine and feces. Let's take a look at both questions.
Typical solutions do not fit
Venice is a fairly large city by European standards: more than 260 thousand people. At the same time, only a part lives on the continental part, while the rest live on the islands, which made the city so famous. Of course, the sewerage system in Venice simply cannot be the same as in other cities of the world.
To lay the pipes, thousands of plumber divers would have to work for several years, and even then, if they could find the right heavy equipment to dig the soil at the bottom of deep channels.
It is also impossible to lay pipes at or above water level. In the second case, this would spoil the appearance of the city, which the Venetians are rightly proud of. And in the first one, it would also impede the movement of water transport.
So there is no way to use typical solutions here. Now let's figure out how the sewerage system works in Venice.
The tides are like cleansing
For many centuries, sewerage in this glorious city was simply ... absent. Yes, residents had to pour their waste directly into the canals. Fortunately, nature itself helped them cope with this difficulty. The fact is that four times a day the water level changes here - two high tides and two low tides, like clockwork. Due to this, at low tide, the water, along with all the sewage, went into the open sea, and after a few hours, fresh sea water, without any impurities, came in its place.
All sewage was blown into the Venetian lagoon, which has a very decent size - about 10 kilometers wide and almost 57 kilometers long. Of course, for an area of about 570 square kilometers, several tens of tons of human waste per day do not pose any danger. In addition, many marine inhabitants actively used this - the number of microorganisms for which these wastes are a nutrient medium has increased significantly. As a result, many marine inhabitants settled here, accustomed to eating these microorganisms - from mollusks to small fish, in pursuit of which larger individuals began to swim into the lagoon.
Thus, the Venetians for many centuries killed two birds with one stone - they got rid of sewage, and at the same time they fed fish, which the fishermen actively caught, providing the townspeople with fresh seafood.
System upgrade
Of course, after reading the previous paragraph, many readers will have a question: "How does the sewer in Venice work today?" Do the inhabitants of this beautiful, so romantic city still live the same way as many centuries ago, getting rid of sewage, simply pouring it into open channels?
You can calm down and not worry. Many years have passed since then, much has changed, science and technology have advanced significantly, which allows us to completely solve the problem of removing sewage from the city.
So, how is the sewerage system in Venice today? In fact, it is absent, just like in the years when the city was just being built. The problem was solved in a non-standard way.
A septic tank was installed in each house - about the same as those installed in many private cottages. It separates waste into liquid and solid in the same way, passing the first through filters, and collecting the second in a special container. As a result, a relatively purified liquid is discharged into the channels, as before.
But in order to speed up the removal of sewage, three artificial channels were arranged, providing a much more powerful current throughout the entire area of the city. The tides have become even more intense, there is not a single corner in the city that would not be affected by the current. Solid waste accumulates in septic tanks, and specialists are already dealing with them.
Vacuum boats
If we talk about how the sewerage is made in Venice, we can not help but mention the sewers. On land, this work is carried out by specialists with trucks. But in a city where there are almost no roads, but there are enough canals, this responsibility falls entirely on the boats.
Specially designed vessels, equipped with the latest technology, quickly pump out sewage accumulated in septic tanks, and then dispose of them at the appropriate landfills.
Of course, the constant work of specialists in unpleasant conditions, and even those equipped with highly specialized equipment, costs the city budget a lot. But still, it is easier than laying a full-fledged sewer at the bottom of the channels.
The truth about smells
Now that we have figured out what sewerage is in Venice, let's proceed to the next question - is there really a fetid cloud constantly hanging over the city?
Fortunately, no. The romantic city smells only of the salty sea in winter and summer. Rumors about the stench are spread by ill-wishers, and picked up by people who have never been here.
On the one hand, the amount of impurities is too small. Try pouring a tablespoon of urine into a bucket of water - there won't be the slightest smell. And in millions of cubic meters of sea water, liquid waste dissolves just as easily.
In addition, a cool breeze almost constantly blows from the sea, which blows the wind from Venice, bringing freshness and cleanliness to the inhabitants.
So, if you have a trip to this glorious city, you definitely should not worry about an unpleasant smell.
Conclusion
This concludes our article. Now you know how the sewerage works in Venice, and also read something about its history. We hope that the article expanded your horizons and was interesting!
A short film about the Venetian canals.
Original taken from lake_chad in post
My seminar about Marco Polo's journey on the Yuli Rempel forum started just three days ago, and it's amazing what the participants come up with - they arrange gondola races in the bathroom, build time machines and make Venetian shoes from old slippers and firewood!
And Osya became interested in how houses are built in Venice, and we climbed to read about it. Why do they not collapse from constant water and how does their foundation withstand?
At first, Osya learned that all Venetian houses are on stilts. The ground in Venice is too loose to build a foundation directly on it, so the foundations had to be strengthened first! To do this, tree trunks were driven into the ground - larch, alder, oak.
In sea salt water, wood becomes very strong, like iron. When the piles were specially examined in 1827, they found that the piles from the larch forest "petrified", became so hard that neither an ax nor a saw could take them.
The piles were treated with special resins and driven deep until they reached solid ground.
And imagine, when the church of Santa Maria della Salute was being built, more than a million piles were driven into the ground, each of which was 4 meters long. It took 2 years and 2 months.
And at the same time we looked at how the canals are being cleaned. First, wooden barriers are built, then the water is drained. Well, then they remove all the garbage here that has accumulated at the bottom of the canal.
And here is an even more colorful photo. Canal cleaning in 1956
At the same time, when the water is drained, you can inspect the foundation and restore those places that were destroyed by sea water. First, the holes are sealed, and then the seams are also filled with a special mixture! What you don't know :)
Where do you think the contents of antique Venetian chamber pots go? Don't you think? :) That's right - I didn't ask myself this question either until September 26 of this year.
However, on this fateful day, an entry appeared in my journal "And yet she is sinking" (about sinking Venice, if anyone is interested). The post suddenly got a lot of comments. Among them was this one: “Does the author of the post know that in Venice, as many centuries ago, there is no sewage at all, and its role is played by canals and sea currents, and all, excuse me, the waste of the life of the Venetians is joyfully carried away into the Adriatic Sea during the tides, which completely suits the cheerful Venetians. Against this background, tenderness at the sight of children frolicking in this very water, to put it mildly, is incomprehensible.”
With great aplomb, I replied that the author knew everything ... but I did this only after shoveling the entire Internet in search of a worthy refutation. That is, like this, there is no sewerage system, I thought, - after all, I have seen repair work in the canals many times (they are blocked for this time, they completely drain the water and poke around there unhindered). There are many pipes laid at the bottom of the channels - one of them must be a sewer - I had little doubt of this.
What was my surprise when, from the mass of information about plans to improve the sewer system, new knowledge crystallized - Venice really uses the same method as 500 years ago. The method, by the way, is quite effective: in all Venetian palazzos there are so-called septic tanks - in other words, sedimentation tanks, at the bottom of which accumulates ... uh ... well, in general, a natural product :) And everything that is lighter than this waste really gets into the canal through holes in the wall (by the way, sewage boats work very efficiently in Venice :).
Twice a day in the Venetian Lagoon there is an ebb and flow, so that all the water in the canals is constantly cleaned, or rather replaced by new clean water. Therefore, stories about the terrible smell of Venice are greatly exaggerated. However, some amber is really felt during strong low tides, which occur mainly at night. Then these sewer holes are above the water level and, accordingly, a smell appears, which in the literature has a veiled name "eau du canal".
By the way, I laughed very hard when, in my research, I stumbled upon the blog of an Italian guy who "came in large numbers" to Venice (apparently, a student). Shortly after the move, he also had a question: is there any sewerage in Venice (I translate literally, shit pipeline)? He only formulated it with youthful spontaneity: “Is all Venice constantly pooping into the canal?” :) The guy decided to check this empirically: pulling the cord of the drain tank, he rushed to the window and saw that water had flowed out of the hole in the wall, but nothing more :) The guy cheered up a little, not seeing solid residues floating into the canal, but the experiment did not end there. Then he poured dishwashing detergent into the toilet, drained the water and again ran to the window - foam flowed from the sewer hole exposed by the tide! Oh horror - the connection turned out to be direct and immediate!
As a very impressionable person, I immediately shared a terrible discovery with my husband, which caused him an attack of great fun. Well, you give, he laughed, but how do you think the sewerage system is generally arranged in big cities? Well, imagine - there are pipes, they lead to the same settling tanks, but somewhat larger and somewhat more advanced, and then the water (purified, but not at all sterile) is still discharged into rivers, seas and other places from which we drink and in which we swim. And indeed, I remembered my recent walk not far from the discharge of such water into our mountain stream - the smell of detergents is still very noticeable!
At first I was upset, and then I remembered Vladimir Voinovich with his Ivan Chonkin. And also the immortal phrase about the cycle of shit in nature :)) But you can’t argue against the classic :)
By the way, all this applies only to the historic center of Venice, newer peripheral areas are connected to the city sewerage system. The islands seem to be connected too.
As illustrations, I took photographs of winter, autumn and spring floods in a completely random order. After all, the post was written specifically in connection with the floods, so I don’t have other pictures :)
5.
9.
11.
So everything is fine, gentlemen tourists! And floods are, perhaps, even a blessing, because they cleanse beautiful Venice better than any sewer. I read an interview with one of the former Venetian mayors about the protective structures being built. So the mayor there expressed a timid fear that these structures, by stopping the water exchange in the canals, would cause another problem - water stagnation and, accordingly, its pollution. Oh, eternal dualism :)
The moral of this fragrant fable is simple: I still love Venice, I will go there as often as before. But! I will splash around during high water on San Marco exclusively in high rubber boots - away from sin :)
In 1966, there was a flood in Venice. The water rose almost two meters higher than usual and stayed for almost a day. The cause of the incident is an unusually high tide. After such a terrible acqua alta (as the tides are called in Italy), the world community begins to propose projects to “save Venice”, and the Italian authorities in 1973 issue a law recognizing the problem of Venice as a common problem for the whole country.
In particular, environmental measures were taken. In 1975, the modernization of the city's water supply system began. Stop at the first stage. Artesian wells were recognized as the culprits of soil subsidence. In fact, the organization of the city's water supply system in the lagoon has always been a problem.
Currently, the water conduit to the city is laid from the town of Skorce. Local wells are sources of San Benedetto mineral water. And once the townspeople collected rainwater. Elements of the old city water supply have been preserved to this day: guests of Venice often ask guides what kind of unusual architectural structures in the form of stone pedestals stand in the squares? And these are artesian wells that were used to collect rainwater. In the pavements today you can find special holes organized for the flow of water - pilelle.
It was not easy to build an artesian well. First of all, it was necessary to allocate a large area in order to ensure the collection of water. This explains why all the wells are in the squares. Then a pit had to be dug at least 20 feet deep. If it was not possible to dig a hole of sufficient depth, the territory surrounding the well was raised higher.
The walls of the pit were covered with waterproof clay and carefully isolated from the penetration of salt water. This was required by the hydrogeological characteristics of the soils of the lagoon. The pit was covered with river sand, alternating layers of fine and coarse sand and creating a natural filter. A well was built in the center, and two or four pilelles - water intake hatches - were symmetrically located around. Through the pilelle, rainwater passed into the pit, filtered through the sand and penetrated into the central well, from where the townspeople took water for their needs.
The cost of building an artesian well was very high. The authorities could not provide all the townspeople with water due to lack of funds in the treasury, but some wealthy families built water collection facilities at their own expense. On such wells, inscriptions and bas-reliefs are still preserved, by which the townspeople learned to whom they owe unhindered access to fresh water.
Do you know?..
Venetian artesian wells had fundamental differences from artesian wells, although they were sometimes called wells. The water in the wells did not come from underground aquifers. The wells were fed solely by collecting rainwater filtered through the sand.
"History of the Venetian plumbing", BC "POISK", tell friends: May 20th, 2017
Venice. Look into the well and don't die. December 9th, 2015
It is impossible not to notice that wells in Venice are everywhere. Despite the fact that now water has been brought to the city, no one is going to destroy the wells, of which there are over 2,000, and moreover, they are still an urgent need. Although now all of them are sealed just in case for sanitary reasons, the liquid in them is too manure with microorganisms that are harmful to health. But there is no doubt that in case of urgent need, the wells will be opened and water will flow from them again. 
By the way, they were sealed quite recently, 50 years ago. Although water was brought to the city much earlier, wells were still the most necessary of all the structures that were once erected in Venice. Moreover, the builders were pursued by two dangers: how to find fresh water in the middle of the salty sea, and how to protect wells with drinking water from flooding during floods. The ancient architects brilliantly coped with the first task. 
The wells are not as deep as they seem. It was difficult to break through to the aquifers beyond the silt and scree rocks on the islands, and most of the wells are ancient cisterns, still known from Roman times, where rainwater was drained through pipes, filtered and exited into the main part of the tank. 
Most of the wells in Venice are public, located in the squares - campos - or streets, the smaller ones are private, in courtyards, patios or basements of houses. But there were also deeper wells that passed through sedimentary rocks into aquifers and selected drinking water. 
Even in the courtyard of Palazzo Ducale, the Doge's Palace, there are huge marble-bronze wells. Of course, they were sealed long ago, and no one knows the state of the water in them today, but you can be sure that in case of urgent need they can be easily cleaned and put to work. 
Another interesting observation: the beautiful bases and rings of wells are nothing more than worn-out bases and capitals of columns of various buildings. sometimes Roman, which, for their power and beauty, it was decided to preserve. Practically, looking at the wells, you see the history of ancient Venice, and even the whole of Rome. 
Floods were a real disaster for wells. If everything was in order with them on the high islands, then in the low-lying part, just in the area of the often flooded Piazza San Marco, the water could overflow over the edge and then trouble would come. It was very difficult to clean the cisterns and wells from sea water. 
Another thing that dictated the careful separation of drinking water from sea water was the TOTAL lack of sewerage in Venice. Moreover, as such, there is no sewage system in Venice to this day. 
Yes, yes, you understood everything correctly, even today the sewerage from the houses of Venice merges directly into the canals and into the lagoon. It seems incredible, but it's true! This is dictated by two considerations: firstly, in Venice there are no harmful industries to poison the waters of the bay, and the only large plant - an oil refinery - is located on the mainland dadeco. In addition, it makes no sense even today to pull pipes into the city to drain sewage, they safely go into the sea and get lost in it without a trace. The city itself was built quite competently from the very beginning, and all its sewage was carried out into the lagoon with constant ebbs and flows, so that the canals always have the purest water. The very mechanism of the currents existing in the city, thanks to properly laid channels, is arranged like gas exchange (oxygen - carbon dioxide) and air ventilation in the lungs of a person. Small sewers carry sewage into the Grand Canal, which, in turn, into the lagoon. The lagoon is separated from the Adriatic Sea by a sandy spit, which has three straits - Chioggia, Lido and Malomokko. The three above straits, thanks to the currents they form, clean all the channels available in the city, thereby allowing the city to successfully do without the usual city sewerage. Therefore, you will never find any poop, no slop and a heavy smell of rot in the waters of Venice. A healthy city is like a living organism - it lives and breathes in full force.
